by Margaret Kay
“It is nice to meet you too, Miss Maddie Hayes.” He nodded at the two delivery men and then stepped back into the apartment, swinging the door wide, inviting Madison in.
“Nice place,” Madison said, smiling and flirting as she entered.
He closed the door behind her.
“Shit, that can’t be good,” Brielle said. “What is Madison doing?”
“Distracting him and getting intel,” Jackson said. “Don’t worry. You can believe that Cooper is right outside of that door. She’s on comms and he’ll bust in if he even suspects she’s in trouble.” Camera feed did indeed show Cooper and Danny in the hallway outside of the apartment.
The rest of the team followed the delivery truck. Once it was several blocks away, they moved on it as it was stopped at a red light. Brielle watched the feed from Landon, Gary, and Brian’s cameras. Landon jumped up on the running board step beside the driver as Brian did the same on the passenger side. They both opened the doors, and they grabbed the two occupants from their seats, throwing them out into the street. Gary waited by the passenger side. Two men in jackets that said DEA waited by the driver’s door. They had the men handcuffed and pulled to their feet in seconds. Then Landon drove the truck around the block and into a parking garage. Gary followed in the car they’d been in after turning the two suspects over to the DEA.
In the parking garage were several more DEA Agents. They opened the box. It was filled with cash in perfect stacks, packaged by denomination from singles to hundred-dollar bills. Residue in the box tested positive for opiates. They transmitted this information to the rest of the team.
Outside of the man’s apartment, Cooper and Danny unholstered their weapons. Madison was making small talk with her host, leading him to believe that she was a real estate agent who was there to give a market appraisal on the unit. She kept the tone of her voice flirty. “Now Gil, this kitchen is beautiful. And as I’m sure you know the kitchen and the bathrooms are the biggest selling points to any property besides location.”
“I happen to believe the master bedroom is one of the most important rooms. I’d love to show you mine, Ms. Hayes,” he flirted back.
“We’ll get to that room in due time,” she said with a laugh.
On the monitor, Brielle watched as the man stepped in very close to Madison. “Or we can cut to the chase and go to my bedroom.”
Madison stepped back and drew her gun. “Or we can just take you to jail. Get them up!”
At that same moment, Cooper and Danny burst in. The man was just reaching for his gun at the small of his back, doubting she would shoot him. “Don’t!” Cooper yelled. Danny went behind him and took the gun. Then he secured his hands behind his back in zip ties.
As expected, the delivery box had been filled with drugs, which was on a tarp on the floor in the second bedroom. Also as expected, when they offered the man a deal to give up his supplier, he declined. The DEA arrived and took the man and the drugs into custody.
After the operation wrapped up, Brielle met again with Dr. Lassiter. He was quickly assured that she was indeed okay watching Brian operate in the field. She admitted to him her nervousness watching it, but she also relayed to him her pride in Brian and in the team for the work they did.
“I’m really happy with this new life, working here and being with Brian.”
“So, your new goals have taken shape?”
Brielle nodded. “I want to do the best job I can. I’ve been paying attention to what Mr. Shepherd has edited out of my articles. My first goal is to not have anything that needs to be edited out.”
Lassiter smiled. “I’m sure he will appreciate that.”
“And I want to help Angel as much as I can. She works so hard to take care of everyone.” The truth was, everyone who worked here worked harder than anyone she ever knew. She was in awe of all of them.
X-ray
Brielle was in her office working on collating the various sections of the mission report from the DEA Partner Mission the team had just concluded. This was a new assignment for her that Mr. Shepherd thought would help with her articles. She found it fascinating, the reports from each person who had been a part of the mission, those in Ops as well as the team on the ground. She was mostly copying and pasting their accounts into the report format, but in reading them, she did gain a different perspective on events than merely her own observations brought.
She was told that Cooper was responsible for the final review and edits on the report before he submitted it to Mr. Shepherd. Once she was through with the report, she would write her article. She would admit, though, that she was distracted. The team was in the air, due back in just over an hour. She couldn’t wait to see Brian. She had missed him more over the past week than she thought she would.
The mission had concluded the night before, but the team stayed overnight as the company Lear jet was unable to get them until this morning. It was being used the previous evening to transport Charlie and Echo Teams to their next worksite in Nevada. She had just learned that week of the Power Grid Protection Project those teams worked on. It was another government contract Shepherd Security had. She was amazed what all the agency was involved in.
There was also a Bravo Team that was hired out providing personal protection services. They were currently safeguarding a Saudi prince and his family that was in New York City on a shopping and sightseeing trip. They provided protection to celebrities, foreign dignitaries, and even high-ranking U.S. officials when there was a threat.
As she read the accounts from each of the team members that made up the report, she was impressed with how official sounding each of them wrote their parts. It was the facts, the timeline, the operational particulars. No thoughts, feelings, or emotions were present in their reports. She knew those who wrote these sections, but none of their personalities were present in their accounts. Even Brian’s spoke of mission objectives and suspects substantiated. She was impressed by the professionalism displayed in each person’s statement.
She kept an eye on the time, knowing the team was due to land at zero-nine-forty. As she began her article, her mind returned to different aspects of what she’d observed during the mission. Seeing each of them in the bars and the characters they portrayed, she was impressed by their bravery and poise. They went in without bullet-proof vests, with no protection but their instincts and their confidence in the team who was nearby, covering them. They had all slipped into those roles so easily, and they played them very convincingly. Even Madison, cozying up to that man they’d identified as the main distributor of the drugs, her performance was believable. Brielle knew she could never do what Madison had. Her respect for Madison increased.
Thirty arrests were made, drugs with a street value over four million were seized, and not a single person had been injured or killed. Mr. Shepherd had already proclaimed this a very successful operation. She couldn’t agree more. She looked forward to the debriefing after the team arrived back. The team would be dismissed after it. Unfortunately, she wouldn’t be able to leave right away and go home with Brian like she wanted to.
She was assigned to cover the front desk for Angel from twelve hundred hours through seventeen hundred as Angel had the afternoon off. Angel had a prenatal doctor’s appointment for herself and then a visit for Sammy for shots at the pediatrician that afternoon. Brielle knew she shouldn’t complain, after all, she was being paid a generous salary, more than she had ever made, and she had to earn it. But she’d missed Brian, and all she could think about was going home with him and making love to him.
Finally, the text message from Brian notified her that they landed. Euphoria washed through her. You would think he’d been gone months. It was only a week. She messaged him back that she was in her office. He would come there after they arrived, and he stowed his gear.
From that moment on, she couldn’t concentrate on her article. Collating and formatting the mission report was complete and she really should have been working on the article, but all
she could think about was wrapping her arms around Brian and holding him. She never felt this way about another man. Of course, none of her previous boyfriends had a dangerous job. She was sure that had a lot to do with her scattered thoughts.
Forty minutes later he appeared in the open doorway. She jumped out of her chair and rushed around the desk to greet him. He stepped within her office and shut the door. She flung herself at him, squeezing him fiercely as her lips pressed to his. She felt his hand wrap behind her neck, and he held her in place as his kiss deepened.
Sherman had never had a woman hurl herself at him the way that Brielle did. He loved it. And her wild kisses instantly hardened him. He turned her, pressing her back against the door, pressing her to it with his own body. He craved the closeness. He ground his pelvis into hers. The clothes had to go. They had fifteen minutes till the debrief. It wouldn’t take that long, he was sure.
He unbuttoned and unzipped her jeans and pushed them and her panties down her legs while his mouth devoured hers. He only broke the kiss to remove one of her feet from its pants leg. Then he dropped his own pants. He lifted one of her legs, and then sank his throbbing cock into her, letting out a quiet moan in response to the incredible sensation that surrounded him.
He made love to her against that door with a hunger that wouldn’t be satisfied by this short tryst. His ache to simmer inside her for hours would not be satisfied by a few minutes of ecstasy. He wanted to hold her naked flesh against his, caress over every inch of her, hear her scream through several releases. And then he wanted to keep her wrapped in his protective embrace as they both fell asleep only to wake and repeat it with a renewed vigor.
Brielle felt him throb inside her and then the convulsing of his body told her he was coming. She was close, but not there yet.
Once he recovered, he kissed her deeply. He pulled his lips just an inch away and opened his eyes. “I missed you,” he whispered. “I love you.”
“I love you,” she whispered back. “And I missed you more than you know.”
Sherman realized she had not come. He reached a hand between them and strummed her swollen and sensitive clit while circling his hips, his cock still inside her. She gasped out, throwing her head back. Her fingernails dug into his shoulders. She was close. How he wished they had more time. He’d love to keep her there for hours, hovering on the brink until she begged him to let her come.
He felt her vise grip tighten around his cock. Her whole body convulsed as her orgasm tore through her. She emitted a low moan of pure ecstasy. He smiled, delighted. He’d satisfied his woman. His woman. She was his woman. He’d never been as excited and eager to get home from a mission as he had this one.
They quickly redressed and made their way to the debrief. Shepherd recapped the wins from this mission. Since turning the middleman and the two delivery drivers over to the DEA, the next higher up in the food chain was identified. A warrant was issued, and he was arrested that morning. Shepherd congratulated the team and dismissed them, giving them the next forty-eight hours off until Delta team plus Jackson and Burke would report for the briefing before the next mission.
Brielle’s article was due that evening. She worked on it as she manned the front desk. Brian went home. She was surprised when she walked in to find he made dinner, steaks. A bouquet of flowers, roses, waited on the table for her.
“They’re beautiful, thank you.” She kissed him, wrapping her arms around his neck. “You didn’t have to do all this.”
“I wanted you to know how much I love you and how much I appreciate you.” He embraced her, and then kissed her again. “I missed you while I was gone.”
“I missed you too,” she whispered.
Two days later, they were back in Shepherds office for the next briefing. “Okay, that’s it, people,” Shepherd said. “Report tomorrow morning at zero six hundred. You’ll pack up and leave for the airport by zero seven hundred.”
Brielle watched everyone rise. Delta Team plus Rich and Jackson were going on this mission. This time, Houston, Texas was their destination. She was distracted though. She’d realized the previous day that her period was late. She’d bought a pregnancy test and hid it beneath the bathroom counter. Brian came in the bathroom with her that morning to get a shower while she got ready. She would have peed on the stick had he not been in there. She doubted she was pregnant. She had no other symptoms. Her friend Tina had all the classic symptoms before she took her test, and she too was only a week late when she took her test.
Brielle locked the front door behind Bobby as he left for work and then watched him through the front window as he backed his car out of the driveway, and then out of sight. She rushed to the bathroom, not bothering to close the door. She had to pee bad. She took the box with the pregnancy kit from below the sink where she’d hidden it after buying it. She knew the HCG hormone was strongest in first of the morning pee. She needed a definitive answer if she was pregnant or not.
She pulled the sweatpants down and sat on the toilet, maneuvering the stick between her legs so it would be directly in the line of her urine. As she finished peeing, she heard the front door open. Shit, Brian or Bobby were back. She set the stick to the counter and quickly pulled her pants up.
“Did you forget something?” She called as she stepped into the main room. Inside the house were two men. One of them she recognized, blond-boy from the bayou. She’d never seen the other man. She froze for a moment, her breath sucked from her chest. They closed the distance quickly. She finally got her legs to move, and she ran to the alarm panel just steps away, near the door that led out to the garage. She pressed one-two-three-four as one of the men grabbed her from behind. He yanked her away from the panel.
She let out a scream, went on the offensive, turning into blond-boy and throwing punches at him with all her strength. The other man grabbed her wrists and stopped her attack. He pulled her in close to him, sneering in her face. Blond-boy grabbed her hair and yanked her head back. Her terror-filled eyes gazed into his eyes. He looked amused.
They wrestled her over to the front door, her hair feeling like it was being yanked out of her head. Once there, the other man picked her up. She curled her hands around his neck and squeezed. He swung her, crashing her head into the wall. She saw stars and was just a hair this side of consciousness.
In Ops, Madison cursed aloud as her eyes read the display. Immediately, she typed into the communications system, an alert to both Alpha and Delta Teams. Shepherd and Cooper would automatically get copied. Protocol called for team members to insert their comms for direction when a Panic Code Activation was broadcast. A verbal alert with any additional information available would follow within two minutes, per protocol. “Yvette, pull up Brielle’s tracker and watch it.” She heard Yvette’s fingers clicking on the keyboard. “I’ve got a Panic Code Activation at Sherman’s residence.” She read the address, broadcasting it to the copied in team members.
“Brielle’s tracker is moving away from the residence.”
“Hold for a location. Brielle’s tracker is on the move,” Madison updated.
“I’m three minutes out from Sherman’s place,” Doc’s voice came through.
“Proceed to the residence with caution, Doc,” Madison acknowledged.
“Razor and I just left HQ,” Cooper advised.
“Roger that, Coop. The tracker shows her heading north, move to intercept.”
Cooper drove in the general direction of north of Sherman’s condo.
In the back seat of the SUV he was in, Sherman didn’t want to hold for any reason. “Turn this car around! We’ve got to go back towards my place.”
“We need to be sure that’s where Brielle is first,” Lambchop said. He did pull off into a strip mall parking lot. The second Shepherd Security SUV followed. They were less than a mile away from Chicago Executive Airport, preparing to fly out for their mission to Houston.
“Garcia, Doc, and Cooper are on their way to your place,” Yvette said. “Hold at your lo
cation for directions.”
Brielle was dazed from her head’s impact with the wall. It was through the equivalent of drunken eyes that she watched the living room give way to the outside sky. She was also aware of her hands being bound together in front of her body.
She felt the cold breeze wrap around her, and although she wanted to fight what was happening to her, she couldn’t quite get her limbs to obey. She recognized the back end of a car, a silver one. She watched the trunk pop open. Through the fog in her brain, she realized she was put into it. Then the trunk was closed, and she was sealed within, alone and in the dark. A chill invaded her, yet her mind was still not alert.
The car started, and she knew it was moving. She bounced along, slid, and shifted with the car as it made turns. She wasn’t sure how long she was in the car when she finally broke through the haze in her head, but when the fog cleared it was replaced with panic.
Tears flooded her eyes as the thoughts ran through her head in rapid succession. She’d been attacked. She was in the trunk of a car, kidnapped. “Calm down,” she told herself aloud. She’d entered the panic code. They’d know she was in danger. She had the tracker in her shoulder. They’d know where she was and come get her, that’s if the two men didn’t kill her before they could get to her. “As long as this car is moving, I’m safe.” And she knew that had they just wanted to kill her; they would have at the condo. She was alive for a reason. She had to remain calm and be smart.